79 Years Ago Today: Sweet's Mick Tucker Is Born

Michael Thomas Tucker was born July 17, 1947, in Kingsbury, North West London, the son of Hubert and Ellen Tucker, per Wikipedia's account of his life. He started out drawing as a boy, then switched his focus to drums at 14, drawn to the playing of Sandy Nelson, Buddy Rich, and Gene Krupa. His father offered to buy him a kit on one condition: that he take it seriously. Hubert Tucker even lined up his son's first real gig, sitting in for Brian Bennett of The Shadows at a local working men's club. "If he had known who he was replacing, he would have been so scared," Tucker's wife Janet said later.

By 18, the self-taught Tucker was playing R&B, Motown, and early psychedelic covers around pubs and clubs in a band called Wainwright's Gentlemen, alongside singer Brian Connolly. When Tucker was fired in January 1968 for being "too flamboyant," Connolly quit in solidarity, and the two went looking for new bandmates. The result, formed that same month with Connolly, bassist Steve Priest, and guitarist Frank Torpey, was called Sweetshop. It was shortened to Sweet before the year was out.

From late 1972 onward, Tucker's setup was a Ludwig chrome-over-wood eight-piece kit anchored by two 22-inch bass drums and a 14-inch Supraphonic snare, run through Paiste Formula 602 cymbals and, from the early 1980s, Pro-Mark American Hickory sticks printed with his own autograph and the Sweet logo. Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, whose band Sweet opened for in 1979, remembered him this way: "One of the few double bass drummers that didn't let the second bass drum get in the way of a swinging tune like 'Ballroom Blitz,'" Carlos said. "He had a great feel on double bass drum."

Tucker's solos were staged, not just played. He opened and closed them with his own rendition of Elmer Bernstein's theme from 1955's The Man With the Golden Arm, traded fills against pre-recorded video of himself projected on two screens above the drum riser, one showing him on drums and the other on timpani, then moved out front to play timpani and tubular bells before the band came back for the encore. Bandmate Steve Priest put him above the rest of the scene: "He was the most underrated drummer that ever came out of England," Priest said. "He was technically marvelous... and he really felt what he was playing." Guitarist Andy Scott went further still: "Mick Tucker was the best drummer around in the '70s."

Tucker's influence outlasted Sweet's chart run. Jack Irons, later of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam, called him "a great drummer" with "that fluid, '60s/'70s rock 'n' roll freedom." King Diamond and Mercyful Fate drummer Snowy Shaw put him in the same technical class as Ian Paice and John Bonham: "Mick's tastefulness, precision, and strong signature put him at the very top of the list of drumming heroes I had when I was trying to master the profession."

Tucker died of leukemia on February 14, 2002, in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, at 54. He'd had a bone marrow transplant from his brother five years earlier and had been in remission before the disease returned. "He was the best drummer England ever produced and it is a sad loss to the music world," Priest said at the time.

Tucker's own Ludwig eight-piece included a 14-inch Supraphonic as its snare, the same aluminum-shell workhorse that's anchored session and touring kits for six decades.